Deathscapes

Alan Kurdi - Politicians respond - parallax 4

Politicians respond

In this emotional mediatized context, on 8th September 2015 a few days after Alan Kurdi ‘s boat capsized, the former British PM, David Cameron, told the House of Commons that Britain would take 20,000 Syrian refugees from refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan between 2015 and 2020 (House of Commons, 2015). This promise from the UK government translates into settling 4,000 Syrian refugees a year, quite a different commitment to other countries like Germany, or Italy, who have received hundreds of thousands of refugees since 2015. In February 2018, the UK Home Secretary claimed that the Government is “slightly ahead of schedule” in meeting this target to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, as just over 10,000 refugee have come to the UK via a government scheme from September 2015 to December 2017.

‘As ordinary Britons and politicians of all parties came forward to demand the Government adopt a more humane response to the migrant crisis, Downing Street indicated that some kind of climb-down was imminent.’ (Wright et al., 2015)

These gestures point to political sensitivities towards the groundswell of public opinion and media reports at the time condemning the lack of adequate humanitarian action at the EU level, and nationally.

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This Figure shows first-time applicants registered in 2016 – top 6 host EU countries. Total number of applicants is 1,047,600 (Eurostat, 2017).

Figure shows first time applicants registered in 2016 in top 6 host EU countries (Eurostat, 2017).